submitted by Lisa Siciliani, Sales Support Services 

How do free online translation tools compare with each other?

Ever used a free online translator and wondered how the most popular online translation tools compare in quality?

If so, you’ll be interested in a recent survey of Google Translate, Bing (Microsoft) Translator, and Yahoo Babelfish. John Yunker’s May 17 article, Google, Bing and Babelfish: What’s the best translation engine? is a great summary of the results. One interesting find is that “brand” perceptions of the three machine translation (MT) tools significantly impacted quality ratings. Once those brands were masked, ratings for Bing improved by 21% compared to Google, and Babelfish rose by 136% against Google!

Ethan Shen of Gabble-On Translation Tools and Research has made the survey results of Phase 1 available for free (no registration required) at Public Comparison of Online Machine Translators. Visitors may also download a PDF of the full research survey.

Gabble-On is now conducting the second part of their survey Machine Translation Comparison - Phase 2 and invites you to participate. In Phase 2, engines from Systran, Babylon, and Promt will be added to the comparative survey.

So why work with a translation company when these sources are free?

As technology evolves, language service providers are producing an exponentially increasing amount of information, making it incredibly costly and time-consuming to obtain a quality human translation for each and every document, and so many translation companies offer a variety of services applying machine translation (MT). However, when seeking out an MT solution, one must consider the security issues involved in addition to the purpose of the target translation.

When a translation is created using a free online tool, such as Google, that information is kept in Google’s database indefinitely. If a user is trying to obtain knowledge about sensitive material on a free resource, this could put the company or its clients at risk of breaking confidentiality agreements. Understanding who owns the rights to the translation is imperative!

Translation companies often offer several MT solutions based on the varied purposes of the target translation. Options may include:

• Raw MT – machine translation that has not been enhanced with terminology glossaries, editing, or review. Though a translation company may use an untrained engine that is only slightly better than the free online tools, you will gain project management expertise and security, for an extremely affordable price.

• MT via a trained engine – a trained engine consists of machine translation that has been enhanced with technical human translation. There are various ways to achieve a trained machine translation: through applying a client’s preexisting glossaries, terminology, or translation memory, by requesting that the translation provider create terminology lists with the help of qualified linguists, or by the agency using an engine that has been pretrained. Though the overall results will still reflect the lower quality of automated translations, searchability, legibility, and technical accuracy of the documentation will be enhanced significantly.

• Post-edited machine translation (PEMT) – the best value to be obtained from machine translation is via a post-edit. The post-editing option includes review by a highly qualified linguist with expertise in the document’s subject matter. This process is typically half the cost of a full human translation, and although it won’t be of the same quality, it will be legible and technically accurate.  An additional upside to PEMT is that the level of editing to be done to a document can be decided on once the machine translation has happened and areas of interest have been determined. Please note, PEMT documents cannot be certified, and for any document to be used in court, a human translation is recommended.

Resources

Global By Design
Gabble-On

Submitted by Lisa Siciliani, Sales Support Services

For project managers assigned the task of patent translation for filing in foreign countries, the byzantine world of patent documentation and terminology can be overwhelming. A few key issues explained in layman’s terms for those of us who are not attorneys may help to alleviate some confusion and consternation.

Patents around the world is an overview of the patent systems for the major global intellectual property and trademark offices. Skimmable and fact-filled, this European Patent Office webpage begins with descriptions of the various offices, which are interesting when comparing procedures, even if the statistics are a little dated.

Immediately following these descriptions is the first “Aha!” topic for the uninitiated. Did you know that while U.S. patent law is based on a “first-to-invent” principle, almost every other country worldwide follows a “first-to-file” system in their patent regulations?

As you can imagine, this plays into the filing strategy for individuals and firms who don’t have an unlimited budget for intellectual property protection. Just imagine the legal tangle that can result! McElroy has helped many clients as they frantically scramble to obtain the strongest, most uncontestable translation for a patent whose foreign filing deadline has suddenly turned out to be three days away. “Is anyone making coffee?”

The EPO goes on to outline some of the national differences in what can be patented and how many patents will be required for coverage. For instance, your timeline is certainly going to be impacted if a single original patent must be converted into multiple documents for translation to meet the standards of the Japanese Patent Office.

Differences between U.S. and European patents as described on Ius mentis has several easy-to-understand sections on some variations in what can be patented. You have to love this author’s humor in the statement, “It should perhaps be pointed out that ‘skilled person’ and ‘obvious’ do not mean the same in patent law as they do in real life.”

An important point we can take from this discussion is that superior patent translators can actually assist clients with their patent applications by virtue of their knowledge of proper structure, order of the claims, and other content issues within the patent documentation. The best patent translations are grounded in superior linguistic expertise, subject matter expertise rivaling the inventor’s, and knowledge of patent law for the target country. I’m sure experienced patent translators could add more to these requirements.

The generalization about translation costs in Foreign Patent Filing provided by Smith and Hopen, P.A. isn’t very accurate for budgeting purposes because of the wide range of factors that go into determining costs such as:

·     Word count – Is this one little 2,000-word patent, or a single or multiple patents totaling 20,000 words?

·     Language pair and translation direction – The difference in costs here can easily be threefold.

·     Subject matter – Patents in well-established, common technologies will of course have a larger base of linguistic experts to choose from than those on the “bleeding edge” or in niche fields.

However, Pitfalls 3–5 listed at the bottom of this webpage, while super-simplified, describe critical facts if you are considering filing a patent in both the United States and another country.

Because language nuances are so critical in crafting a patent that is not only defensible, but even deters challenges (thus the expense of defending against them), we recommend you allow adequate time and a reasonable budget for the best translation possible. The return on investment can be enormous.

Footnote

This is not legal advice. Please consult an intellectual property attorney for specific guidance on patent law.

Resources

European Patent Office
Ius mentis, Law and technology explained
Smith Hopen

eCommerce retailers to Move Beyond “Traditional” International Markets; Sophisticated Localization Plan Required

There is no question that the last year has been brutal on global markets. Zia Daniell Wigder, a senior analyst for the Forrester research firm which specializes in website localization and globalization, acknowledged as much in a recent note entitled The Globalization of eCommerce in 2010. She points to the fact that the Economist, a truly global business magazine, reports on the “end of globalization” and the decline in articles mentioning globalization.

Yet Wigder is more optimistic. Working closely with multinational companies, especially eCommerce giants of retail, Wigder believes growth will accelerate in 2010. She points to an expansion beyond traditional international markets of the UK and Japan:

The easing of the economic downturn is unlikely to unleash a sudden global eCommerce frenzy: companies rightly continue to be cautious with any new global online initiatives. However, the belt-tightening that took place in late 2008 and 2009 proved not to halt international eCommerce expansion – in some cases, the downturn even propelled expansion as international markets looked more attractive than domestic ones. The interest in global markets is only likely to grow in 2010: look for an increasing number of online retailers and other eBusinesses to start expanding beyond the highly developed eCommerce markets of the UK and Japan into other markets in Europe and Asia.

As international retailers move beyond the “traditional” global markets, they must ensure they have a fluid and detailed localization plan in place. Common Sense Advisory, another major analyst, has noted that, even in 2010, consumers around the world prefer to purchase in their mother tongue. While consumers in some “advanced” international markets have a command of English, they still trust those sites more that have localized to their first language. This is particularly true when international retailers reach out to new markets throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and beyond.

And localizing for consumers around the world does not just mean translating a few pages on the website. Sophisticated eCommerce retailers recognize the need to localize everything from product descriptions, to customer service contact information, to customer reviews and comments. There is even a need to look beyond the company’s borders to social media sites where products are discussed and reviewed. A truly successful international retailer must operate in the local languages of its customers, and must do so rapidly. One of our clients knows this well. A provider of review and customer comment services for major international retailers, this client has learned that translating customer letters and comments swiftly is critical. Through our well-developed network of translators and our crowdsourcing translation network, we are able to provide this client with translated materials in just two hours—much less than the 48 hours they requested.

Reaching further into local markets globally, and providing information to new customers around the world rapidly, can set an eCommerce retailer apart from the crowd—and can strengthen a company’s recovery from the economic downturn.

Evaluating Processes and Benefits

Tina Wuelfing Cargile, PMP, Business Development Manager – Life Sciences Division

Just today, a prospective client approached me with the question: is the back-translation process the recommended method to ensure quality? The answer, as is so often the case, is—it depends.

It is important to examine the translation process as a whole to arrive at the best answer for your project, starting with the QA steps undertaken during the forward-translation phase.

•    Into-Foreign-Language Translation: Best Practices

The utility of the back translation is historically linked to the steps involved in the original translation into a foreign language. The practice of using a single, independent translator to perform this task makes this step useful, if not imperative.

It is a well-known tenet of our industry that an individual should not proofread nor edit his or her own work, and the old saw that “two heads are better than one” rings true, as it always has. One of our senior technical editors recently likened our iterative translation QA process to the practice of multiple rinsings of glassware by a bench chemist—each step of that process refines the purity and decontamination of the vessel.

The preferred QA process for the forward-translation step should include translation by a linguist qualified not only as a translator, but qualified in the specific subject matter at hand. A second, equally qualified translator should serve as an editor, and the subsequent, collaborative version should be reconciled to resolve any disagreements regarding terminology and meaning.

This can be considered the first “rinse.” It is still critical to have yet another set of eyes check for omissions, numerical errors in dosages, etc. An additional step of final QA must include yet another look by yet another person, to ensure that nothing was overlooked. These steps would constitute the second and third rinse.

At this stage, the QA process has usually resolved any meaningful issues, and a back translation will generally reveal only slight stylistic issues.

However, if a back translation is still desired, the process involved in that stage also bears examination.

•    Back Translation: Best Practices

Performance of a back translation is only as useful as the output. Delivery of a document that raises questions and concerns for the requester only adds to his or her workload and doesn’t resolve any variances nor verify the quality of the original translation.

Recognizing this fact, we revised our back-translation process some years ago, to include a reconciliation of the results. What does that mean?

Following the back translation—(which includes input from a similar, but new, two-translator team)—the original English source document is compared to the back translation, and any possible discrepancies are noted.

This process is followed by an investigation as to whether the noted discrepancies are due to issues with the forward translation or with the back translation.

Another element of this process is reserving delivery of the forward translation until the reconciliation step has been completed. This avoids issuing a document that may require revision. Generally the process can be completed in the same time frame as a single, forward translation, but this presents a distinct issue that bears discussion.

•    Are You Putting the Quality of Your Project at Risk by Requiring a Back Translation?

In order to meet required deadlines, the process can certainly be compressed to accommodate both the forward and back translation. Considering a large project with a tight, nonnegotiable turn (let’s say you have patients available for a study, but only within a limited time frame), you may be adding to the risk of less than ideal quality by rushing the first step to allow for the second.

Translation is a handcrafted, deliberative process, and it does take time. Shortchanging the into-foreign process can mean that the back-translation step is applied like a Band-Aid on a massive wound. Most reputable translation vendors will not agree to a turnaround that will jeopardize your results, but the potential always exists. Your best protection is to thoroughly understand all of the QA steps that will be applied to your project and make a decision based on the situation.

•    Other considerations

Implementing an in-country or colleague review can be an excellent alternative or add-on to the translation process, whether or not a back translation is performed. A reputable and responsive translation partner should encourage this step, when it is feasible. The input of those "on the ground" working on your clinical trial is invaluable because their suggestions and preferences regarding terminology and style are impacted by their interaction with the human subjects involved in the study. Such preferences can be preserved in glossaries and translation memories, resulting in quality and study-targeted improvements over time.

Finally, talk to your translation vendor about process. Often we see back-translation orders that are intended to validate forward translations done by another vendor or by another source. While the intent is clearly to maintain objectivity and clarity of process, this practice dilutes the advantage of having a single project manager and a well-designed team carrying your project forward, and can bring financial and timeline costs as well.

Bottom line—translation services are likely not the most pressing line item in your budget, but take the time to understand the processes and services they represent. The differences may surprise you and save you much more than money—-the validity of your study, the quality of patient protection, and your time.

Multilingual, April/May 2009

We work in an industry that is all about meaning and communication, yet we don't do much better than folks in other industries at employing effective messaging. There are missteps and irritants possible no matter how one sends a message. This month, Tina Cargile and Erin Vang discuss different styles of business communication. Read full article.

Erin Vang, PMP
Principal Pragmatist, GlobalPragmatica

Localization and translation are almost always outsourced, and for many good reasons. Vendor management is therefore crucial to any localization or translation program, and it starts with vendor selection. Every aspect of vendor management—the financial and legal relationship, communications, project coordination, risk planning, and so on—will be easier if you start by taking the time to find the vendor or vendors that are best-suited for your needs. A huge number of companies are eager to have your business, most of them will bend over backwards to adapt their processes to your needs, and many of them are truly excellent. But one size does not fit all. The best possible vendor for one company might be a lousy fit for your company.

If I had to get it down to one sentence, my advice would be this:

Don't go by price, go by who understands your needs the best.

If you have time for more than one sentence, read on.

Erin Vang, PMP
Principal Pragmatist, GlobalPragmatica

Localization and translation are almost always outsourced, and for many good reasons. Vendor management is therefore crucial to any localization or translation program, and it starts with vendor selection. Every aspect of vendor management—the financial and legal relationship, communications, project coordination, risk planning, and so on—will be easier if you start by taking the time to find the vendor or vendors that are best-suited for your needs. A huge number of companies are eager to have your business, most of them will bend over backwards to adapt their processes to your needs, and many of them are truly excellent. But one size does not fit all. The best possible vendor for one company might be a lousy fit for your company.

If I had to get it down to one sentence, my advice would be this:

Don't go by price, go by who understands your needs the best.

If you have time for more than one sentence, read on.

Susan Smith, Project Manager

This is a key question clients should ask themselves before planning their project schedule and budget. There are as many answers as there are formats for translation. Read more…

Rebecca Petras, Public Relations Manager

Facebook, Twitter, Flixster, LinkedIn: They make up the fastest-growing segment of the Internet. In fact, two-thirds of online users access "member communities," which include social networks and blogs, according to research conducted this year by The Nielsen Company. They have even overtaken e-mail as the fourth most popular online category, and they are growing twice as fast as any other category.

“Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience,” says John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online. “Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large.”

But are these sites just fun, and a great way to procrastinate, or are they useful in business? How are they being used in our world of languages and localization? Read on…

Delia Davila, Senior Production Coordinator

When you design a document for print, you consider many details that work together to form the overall look of the end product. One thing you probably don't look at is the hidden text: all the spaces, line breaks, and paragraph marks that live behind the scenes.

The first thing we do when we get your brochure for translation is to flip the switch that shows that hidden text. The finished product of your brochure is our starting place, so we spend time before translation making sure the translated text will behave the way your English text behaves. We call this “optimizing” the file. It doesn’t look different on the surface, but tweaks made to the file ensure that the translation process is more effective and efficient. Read more on File Optimization.